Many medical devices, such as sonographic devices, allow a user to change transducers from time to time. One method for changing such transducers is to simply unplug the first transducer and plug a second transducer into the same physical socket. However, this is not practical for a variety or reasons. Thus, in some situations it is desirable to allow more than one transducer to remain physically attached concurrently to the equipment. In order to allow more than one transducer to be concurrently connected to the device it is necessary to have one or more switches that allow the user to select which of the physically connected devices is also electrically connected at any given time.
In one prior art system, three transducers (scan heads) are physically connected to a single medical device. Electronic relays operating under control of a user operated switch serves to electrically connect a selected one of the three scan heads to the device. These relays, and their accompanying electronics, require power to operate and are relatively expensive to both manufacture and maintain. Thus such switches become a controlling cost factor in the manufacturing of the medical device. This cost is ultimately passed along to the patient. Accordingly, it is desired to reduce the cost of connecting multiple transducers to a common medical device.